Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz

Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz (20 December 1956-) was President of Mauritania from 2009, succeeding Ba Mamadou Mbare.

Biography
Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was born on 20 December 1956 in Akjoujt, French West Africa to a family of Sunni Muslim Berbers, and in 1977 he joined the Royal Military Academy of Meknes in Morocco. In June 2003 he put down an attempted coup in Mauritania and a military uprising in August 2004, but on 3 August 2005 he joined Ely Ould Mohamed Vall's coup against dictator Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, and in August 2008 he ousted Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi after formerly being his Chief-of-Staff. In 2009 he was elected as President due to his popularity, leading the populist Mauritanian Union for the Republic. On 13 October 2012 he was shot in the abdomen by men who ran away after the shooting, but he was successfully treated in Paris.